Apparently, gamers will never get tired of killing Nazis. The Call of Duty franchise proves this formula by standing out amongst the many WWII shooters released every year. How does Call of Duty 3 stack up against its predecessor? Check out Matt\'s review to find out.

With Viva Pinata, Rare has produced their first truly standout game since going to bat for Microsoft. The pinata-rearing simulation may look like a child\'s game, but it turns out to be one of the most addictive and deep games to ever grace the Xbox 360. Reminiscent of simulation and collection titles like The Sims and Animal Crossing, Viva Pinata is open and never ending, addictive and compelling, and one of the best games of the year. Because of its unusual style it\'ll never have a fan base the size of games like Gears of War, and most Xboxers will probably never buy a copy even though they almost certainly should. Read the full review for details on what makes this game so great.

Occasionally, real-life politics and games meet one another in a way that doesn\'t involve blaming them for the ills of society. On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.\'s day of honor, a protest in Second Life against a real-world political group nearly brought the servers to a standstill. After hours of battle, the building of the French political party Front National - located in a part of the game where players can\'t hurt each other - had ceased to exist, destroyed by either a technical glitch or a deliberate decision to pull the building. Luckily, Wagner James Au from New World Notes was there to write about it in detail, describing the interesting blend of the real and fantasy that belongs entirely to the art of video games.

The story behind the first Eragon book, movie, and video game is an interesting one, starting with a home-schooled student that published his book at 19 years old. Now, with a movie that is being universally trashed by reviewers, the Eragon video game has come forward to redeem the franchise from embarrassment. Sadly, its repetitive gameplay and incoherent storytelling don\'t do Eragon much justice, portraying the world as nothing but an endless stream of bad guys with frustrating gameplay. The movie and book have been accused of being derivative of classics like Star Wars; the video game doesn\'t present a coherent enough story to be accused of being derivative of anything.

The success of Brain Age has helped to launch an entire genre into the public mindset. While video games will probably always revolve around high action and high intensity, games designed to make you smarter have established a slower, more serious side of gaming. Yet even games that are designed to make you smarter have to be fun, and Majesco\'s Brain Boost series for the Nintendo DS simply doesn\'t make the cut. We take a look at Brain Boost: Beta Wave and Brain Boost: Gamma Wave to see if there\'s a winning combination of entertaining puzzles and something to improve the mind; we\'re not entirely convinced we found either.

According to the official forums of Through The Looking Glass, or more specifically \"2K Elizabeth\" from 2K Games, we\'re looking at a June release for Irrational\'s PC/Xbox 360 action-RPG Bioshock, the soul-brother to the cult and critically acclaimed System Shock and System Shock 2. What does that mean for this summer?

The Xbox 360 needed a killer app to help counteract the release of both the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii, a game that would make their year-old system more appealing to potential Christmas shoppers. Well, Epic delivered with Gears of War, one of the best games to ever grace a game system. Even after the shiny new gleam has worn off, Gears of War continues to amaze, and promises to be a lasting online and offline hit for some time to come. Between Gears of War and Halo, Microsoft is holding some intellectual properties that will sell consoles, and you better bet that they know it.

The PS3 has not had an easy launch. While the mainstream media has been treating the system very MTV-like (with unquestioning adoration), Sony\'s street credit amongst the hardcore has been taking almost daily blows. From problems with HDTV support to shortages at launch, Sony just hasn\'t been getting the positive consumer response they probably wanted. Now, Joystiq.com is reporting on a YouTube video that highlights just how bad PS2 games look when run on the PS3\'s backwards compatibility. The side-by-side comparison video between a PS2 game running on the PS3 vs. an actual PS2 is really fairly stunning. The PS2 beats the PS3 hands down, and does so clearly enough that you don\'t have to be picky to notice the difference. Check out the article for more information.

GF editor Aaron Stanton has been trying to win a PS3 for charity from KISSFM 103.3. we\'re sad to say he didn\'t make it. But there\'s still a chance. One of the other contestants, Hollan, is considering donating the PS3 to Child\'s Play if he wins. So, if you want to help Penny Arcade auction off a PS3 that\'s been signed with personal messages by the developers of Microsoft (details on that in the article) all in the name of raising money for sick children in hospitals, you\'ve got to read this. We need to band together as gamers and make sure that Hollan wins this competition. We need him to win by a landslide. Go here and vote for Hollan. If you want to read more about what\'s going on, gamesfirst.com/?id=1471\"" onClick="window.open( this.href, '_self' ); return false;" title="">read this article here, and then go vote for Hollan. Before 4 o\'clock, December 1st, 2006.

In an odd and yet fortunate turn of events, GamesFirst editor Aaron Stanton has been invited to publicly humiliate himself for the sake of video games. By locking himself in a mall for 5 days he has a chance to win a PS3. If we can end up with a system in hand, we\'re going to go ahead and donate that sucker to Penny Arcade\'s Child\'s Play charity. But before we do that, we\'re going to try to get it signed by the last people on earth you\'d expect: Sony\'s rival Microsoft. We\'re taking it to Microsoft with an open invitation to the Xbox developers to sign the system with whatever personal messages they might have for Sony. It\'s just our little way to make the system a bit more of a collectors item before being auctioned away to raise money for sick children across the United States. But, before we can do even that, we need your help...

Do you like shooting bad guys in the face with a variety of weapons? Then you\'re probably already familiar with F.E.A.R., last year\'s instant classic FPS from Monolith. We strapped our resident cheeky strategy freak Sean to a desk and made him play the new expansion pack to F.E.A.R., Extraction Point, until he swore Shawn was Alma and the rest of the GF! staff were clone troops. And that\'s one game that\'s sure to end badly. As part of his community service, we\'re making him write the review anyways. Enjoy!

Her Interactive has been successful with their Nancy Drew series. Rather than trying to turn Nancy into some Lara Croft wannabe, the current line of Nancy Drew mystery games focus on adventures with compelling stories and inclusive content. These are games that make an effort to represent the real world in all its diversity and they privilege science and logic over mindless combat. That fresh perspective makes us forgive them somewhat for their gameplay hiccups. Get Laurie\'s full review here.

The National Summit on Video Games, Youth and Public Policy was generally a successful and unbiased attempt to create a unified statement about the effects of violent video games. The participants were generally informed and open-minded, and the organizers promised to do their best to accurately represent what those present had to say. Unfortunately, the first press release from the summit, released by the National Institute on Media and the Family, drops the ball. It puts words in the mouth of those that participated, calling video games \"devastating\", and suggesting that was a unified perspective at the event. It wasn\'t. Read our take on the Summit\'s latest announcement.

Caesar IV picks up where the series left off, placing the fate of a great and powerful empire into the hands of the average game player. Caesar IV offers a lively city with plenty of graphical appeal, engaging micromanagement, and a few frustrating interface problems, all in one package. For those of you interested in working your way up the ladder from lowly outpost commander to Caesar himself, you\'re likely to find what you\'re looking for in this newest addition to the series.